Im Schatten is a work of classicism – a straight-up crime film juxtaposing the mechanics of a career outside the law with clear-eyed views of industrial Berlin.

The protagonist, Trojan (Mišel Matičević),is a professional who always acts purposefully, with control and precision. An effective, propulsive score describes a life of constant motion; and photography of fluorescent interiors (shot with a Red camera) perfectly captures a world where night always reigns.

Real crime, we are reminded, is seldom a solo act. Like any other human endeavor, crime is a collaborative business where you need confidence in your colleagues and careful analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

"Im Schatten" or "In the Shadows" is a German German-language film from 2010 already. It is among the more known and more recent works by writer and director Thomas Arslan ("Gold"). This is the story of a man released out of jail and what happens when crime seems to cross his way once again. It becomes clear pretty quickly that there is no way out for him and that his past will always be an essential part of his present. Anyway, the cast includes a handful pretty well-known names at least here in Germany, namely Maticevic, Eichhorn, Bohm, Bock, Zischler, Kurth... They all are the reason why this turns out pretty nicely. The fact that the film barely makes it past the 80-minute mark means that it is a very essential movie. A lot happens in here frequently and it still does not feel for the sake of it. It is basically a crime drama at its most essential. Arslan wasn't scared of people dying and he had no time for stupid romance plots or at least not putting them in the center of his movies. As a side-plot, the story between the prosecutor and the protagonist works nicely. By the way, this film does not shed a positive light at all at the good side of the law with what we see from law and order in here. They are just as corrupt and breaking the law as much as the bad guys, not even being scared of murder.

Anyway, overall I enjoyed the watch here. It is a film that does not really have any component being really great or so, but it all works nicely like a puzzle that consists of the action, the characters, the acting, the script and the direction. Maybe other lead actors could have made this more interesting and more gritty even, but Maticevic wasn't bad at all either and is one of the bigger successes from the film. So what else is there to say. I believe it shows how experienced Arslan and the cast are in here and I was curious what would happen next most of the time. You knew very quickly that this isn't a film that goes for forced unrealistic sequences, let alone happy ending. And even if I would not put it among my favorites of the year (at least not globally),I think this is a good watch for everybody who likes the genre or the actors. Go check it out. You will most likely not be disappointed.